Apple iPad Will Stay on Top Through 2012: Analyst

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Apple's iPad franchise will continue to dominate the tablet market through 2012, according to a new analyst report.

Apple's iPad franchise will continue to dominate the tablet market for some time to come, according to a new analyst report.

In a July 7 research note issued by Canaccord Genuity, analyst T. Michael Walkley and his co-authors suggested that the iPad 2's price point is making it difficult for rival tablets to compete in a profitable way. "Our checks indicate both the Motorola Xoom and RIM PlayBook have not sold well at current price points, as we believe competing tablets must sell at a substantial discount to the iPad 2," they wrote.

Their research note estimates Apple's share of the tablet market at 56 percent in 2011, followed by Samsung with 12 percent, and Asus with 5 percent. LG Electronics, Motorola and Research In Motion are all given 3 percent of the market, followed by HTC with 2 percent. Although Amazon.com has yet to release a tablet, the note pegs their 2011 share at 5 percent. Nor do those percentages change much for 2012, although Apple loses 5 percent of its overall share to rival manufacturers.

"Given the iPad 2's affordable prices," the research note added, "we believe competitors such as Motorola Mobility and RIM would have to sell their tablets at break-even or worse in order to capture stronger market share than our current estimates. Samsung, Asus and Amazon are seen as the largest Android-based threats to Apple s reign."

The analysts also don't discount the possibility of Microsoft, which plans to port the next version of Windows onto tablets, making a significant dent in the market: "We also believe a Windows tablet in the second half of 2012 could sell well, particularly to the enterprise channel."